Page 48 of Bewitch

“After you said the same thing! And don’t call me chick.”

“I thought about saying girl but thought you wouldn’t appreciate that.”

“No, girl wouldn’t have been any better.”

“Well, then?”

“You could call me by my name.”

“I could. Are you going to continue to waste time, or are you going to try again?”

“How about I try something else?”

He sighs. “Life is difficult and challenging, and sometimes, you have to do what you don’t want to do. It’s a fact of life. Just do it already.”

“Because one failed pushup isn’t enough.”

“What you put out into the world—”

“Yeah, yeah. You get it back. Heard it before. Didn’t believe it then. Not sure I believe it now.”

“Let’s go already.”

I barely try. I definitely could’ve given a better effort, but he just has me move onto a pattern—squat then a side lunge, squat then opposite side lunge, again and again and again. It’s easy enough to get into the flow of this even if he barks at me to go deeper, which is fine with the squat but the side lunges are another story, and suddenly, my stomach is churning so badly from everything—the food and the movement—that I have no choice. Despite my limp, I run to the bathroom, barely making it in time to be sick.

At least I didn’t make a mess, but I am embarrassed as all hell to make my way back to him after rinsing out my mouth as best as I could in the sink and washing my hands thoroughly.

“What did you do?” he demands. “Party too hard last night, college girl?”

I glower at him. “I’m fine.”

“You can’t tell me you didn’t—”

“Maybe I didn’t want to shit myself.”

He shakes his head. “You were vomiting. You can’t tell me that you pushed yourself too hard. You weren’t even using any weights.”

“I don’t want to get into it.”

“You need to talk to me because you’re wasting both of our times if you—”

“Fine. You want to know what’s going on?” I hesitate, actually considering telling what happened, and then shake my head. “Forget it.”

“So that’s it? You’re just going to walk away? I have to admit you lasted longer than I thought you would, but I always knew you would quit one day.”

“You have no idea what it’s like to be me.”

“No one does. No one knows what it’s like to be anyone else. We just have to deal with the hand we’ve been dealt.”

I scowl. “As if your hand is a shitty one.”

“First off, screw you. Second of all…” He blows out a breath. “That personal day I took? It was so I could see my father before he was taken off life support. That man… I was there when he died, and he didn’t even deserve that, but I was there. I showed up even though it was painful.”

I glance away.

“So yeah, no one knows what someone else is going through. Happy?”

“No.”

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